To the Editor:

Gun-related death rates in the United States are eight times higher than they are in all other comparable developed nations. Is there something in our water? Why are we so different?

Our gun culture is unique from all other industrialized nations, and it is this culture that’s at the root of our problem. Since our founding, the U.S. has had an unholy connection with guns that, for the majority of Americans, is an ethos of the individualistic right to own and bear arms for security and freedom. We need to change that, for there is no evidence that guns provide either.